Mobile display apparatus is known to the prior art, whereby different advertising messages or scenes are successively exhibited. One such apparatus, for example, takes the form of a billboard made up of a series of elongated strips, each of the strips having a triangular cross-section. The strips are mounted adjacent to one another in the prior art assembly, and they are rotatably driven in an intermittent or continuous manner, so that the different faces of the individual strips may be brought successively into a position which approximates display plane, and so that the collective faces may successively exhibit different scenes or different advertising messages in the display plane.
The mobile display apparatus of the present invention, like the mobile displays of the prior art, has particular utility in advertising, or for decorative purposes. The mobile display of the invention has an advantage in that the various solid geometric elements which make up the display are driven in an unusual and fascinating manner, so as to describe irregular paths of rotation, as each element is turned to bring a different face into the display plane. When tetrahedron elements are used, for example, and since each tetrahedron element has four faces, four separate messages may be presented on a successive basis in the display plane of apparatus constructed in accordance with the invention.
In the embodiment of the invention to be described, an improved mobile display apparatus is provided for advertising or decorative purposes, which is made up of six regular three-dimensional tetrahedron solid geometrical elements hinged together, along two opposite edges thereof. The tetrahedron elements in the embodiment to be described are supported on a bracket, and they are folded together so that one face of each element collectively forms a hexagonal display surface. Two pairs of the tetrahedron elements are rotatably mounted on the bracket, as will be described, and drive means is provided for rotatably driving pair them to cause a different set of faces of the tetrahedrons to be brought successively into the display plane. In this way four different messages or scenes may be successively displayed on the display plane as the individual tetrahedron elements turn about their respective axes.
The display apparatus of the present invention may further be adapted to unusual and unique displays, or it may be used for other purposes, such as games, gate valves, and so on. The three-dimensional solid geometrical elements, for example, may be transparent or translucent, and different objects and/or light sources may be encased within the various elements for different and unusual effects as the elements are individually rotated. As a further alternative, the sides of the individual solid geometrical elements may be indented to provide depressions therein for supporting merchandise, such as jewelry, which is to be displayed by the apparatus.